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Mix Yourself a Perfect One
December, 2002 - Onstage or in the
studio, a poor monitor mix can ruin a performance for any musician—whether
you are monitoring through floor wedges, personal ear monitors,
or headphones.
The problem is, in many live production venues—small clubs,
houses of worship, television studios—there just isn't enough
time to communicate with the engineer and set up the perfect mix
for every performer. And in many instances, there may not even be
a separate monitor mixer.
Whether you're first on the bill with six other bands at a local
club, or one act among several at a worship service, or recording
your latest demo, the front of house or recording engineer has enough
to do without having to create a unique monitor mix for you... and
every other performer. So how can you get the monitor mix you need
every time you perform?
Personal Monitor Mixing
Hear Back is the answer—a high-power, low-distortion personal
monitor mixing system from Hear Technologies that assures you the
perfect mix, show after show. Easy to set up, intuitive to use,
flexible and inexpensive, the Hear Back system puts control of your
monitor mix at your fingertips with faster set up and a quicker
sound check. Now, with a perfect monitor mix virtually guaranteed,
you can relax and concentrate on your performance.
Hear Back benefits audio production staff too. Not having to set
up and tweak separate mixes for each and every performer saves time
and that saves operating costs. Personal monitors, especially wired
or wireless ear systems, offer vastly improved clarity at much lower
levels than loudspeaker systems. But even with loudspeakers,a superior
monitor mix translates into a quieter mix onstage, allowing the
engineer to create a better front of house mix.
The Hear Back System
The basic Hear Back system comprises a Hub feeding up to 8 personal
Mixers. A single Hub supplies audio signals and power to each of
the connected Mixers through individual CAT5E cables. No AC cords
or wall warts to trip you up on stage means no danger that your
monitors will accidentally lose power. (A 4-station Hear Back package—a
single Hub and 4 mixers—comes with 4 free, fifty foot CAT5E
cables, a $100 value.)
The Hub accepts three eight-channel input sources that are switch-selectable
on the front panel. These include: eight analog inputs (such as
matrix, auxiliary, direct outs, or other feeds from an analog mixing
console); ADAT Optical (for inputs from digital mixers, workstations,
or playback devices); and HearBus. The proprietary HearBus allows
up to 32 Hubs to be linked to create larger systems. High quality
24-bit converters throughout ensure excellent audio fidelity and
allow long line runs without loss of audio quality. System latency
is less than 1.5 milliseconds.
Local Control, Local Protection
Each Mixer provides control of up to 10 audio channels, including
a stereo Aux input that allows a stereo mix, click or drum machine
to be introduced locally. Pairs of inputs may be linked for stereo
operation. Indicators on the Mixer's front panel—including
bus, channel link and headphone amplifier over-temperature LEDs—provide
visual feedback of the system s operating status, and in the event
of a short, the amplifier shuts down automatically.
Two headphone outputs are provided as well as two balanced line
outputs, providing a single mono or stereo output for use with a
personal wireless ear monitor or floor wedge system. A Master Volume
pot controls the level of the eight audio inputs from the Hub and
the local Aux input to the headphone and line outputs.
A powerful built-in amplifier drives headphones at all impedances,
allowing a single Mixer to feed multiple high-impedance ear buds
for a choir or backing singers. The virtual zero headphone output
impedance additionally provides a better dampening factor for tighter
bass response.
In addition to providing the means for each musician to set his
or her own monitor level safely, the Hear Back system also offers
a number of features to protect your precious hearing. Hear Back
has a built-in DSP with user control of a brick-wall limiter protecting
earphone wearers from extreme volume levels and monitor wedges from
overload.
Flexible, expandable, and with high audio quality, Hear Back is
a professional personal monitoring system. Easy to use and affordable
by design, Hear Back puts control of your mix where it belongs.
www.HearTechnologies.com
256-922-1200
[download
pdf 626KB]
Published in "Pro Sound News"," EQ",
"Keyboard", and other audio publications.
"Hear Technologies" and "Hear Back"
are registered trademarks of Hear Technologies.
All names and marks of other companies belong to those respective
companies.
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